HISTORIC WEIR FISH PASS OPENS TO HELP FISH REACH HABITAT FOR FIRST TIME IN OVER 170 YEARS

Ribble Rivers Trust have celebrated the completion of their fish pass on the River Hyndburn which will allow migrating salmon, trout and eels to bypass a historic weir allowing them to reach habitat inaccessible since the middle of the 1800s.

October 16, 2017 — Located on the River Hyndburn, between Clayton-Le-Moors and Great Harwood, the fish pass has been constructed to bypass the weir as part of the Trust’s Ribble Life Together programme, transforming 1.3km of river. Now complete, the team will monitor the effectiveness of the fish pass using radio tracking on trout, e-fishing the channel itself and looking at invertebrates colonising the new channel.

Oakenshaw fish pass

Jack Spees, Chief Executive, Ribble Rivers Trust, said: “Today is very exciting as this is by far the biggest of our six completed fish passes this year. It’s such an accessible site and with the woodland planting taking place after Christmas, which will be done with school children and local volunteers, as well as a river walk route planned for the future, we’re pleased to be able to continue our work enhancing and promoting the wonderful natural heritage in this area.”

As part of improving the natural heritage, volunteers will plant 1,650 native trees in the adjacent woodland early in the new year. They will include a mix of sessile oak, alder, hazel, downy birch, rowan, goat willow, hawthorn, holly, hornbeam and wych elm. The woodland was designed with advice from the Lancashire Wildlife Trust and the local farmer to fit in with an existing Biological Heritage Site, designated for semi-natural ancient woodland and existing habitats.

The £128,000 fish pass project has been funded by national lottery players through the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Environment Agency, Natural Course – an EU LIFE funded project, and the Windfall Fund – a partnership between EnegieKontor and The PROSPECTS Foundation.

Alistair Maltby, Operations Director, The Rivers Trust: “It’s great that this fish pass is now in place and it will be really exciting to follow the progress of the fish migrating upstream. This project has been part-funded by Natural Course, a ten-year project that we are working on with partners from private, public and community sectors to improve the North West water environment. It will be really useful to share the learning from this project with partners across the region.”

Further information can be found at www.ribblelifetogether.org/hyndburnbrook-oakenshaw or you can contact the Ribble Rivers Trust on 01200 444452.

The Ribble Rivers Trust (RRT) is a local environmental charity established in 1997 to protect and restore the rivers, streams and watercourses within the Ribble catchment and to raise public awareness of the value of our local rivers and streams. The Ribble catchment is the area of land that is drained by the River Ribble and its major tributaries; the Hodder, Calder and Darwen. It covers a varied landscape, from the rural hills of the Yorkshire Dales and the source of the River Ribble, to major urban areas of Lancashire including Blackburn, Burnley and Preston. For more information visit https://ribbletrust.org.uk

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